Lowveld Community Orchestra celebrates 10 years together

The Lowveld Community Orchestra celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a beautiful performance for music lovers at the Bardolino Artists Retreat on Saturday afternoon May 13.

The Autumn in the Garden concert was attended by a number of Lowvelders who were welcomed with a glass of mead.

The concert included classical pieces such as Astor Piazola’s Oblivion and Libertango, Waltz No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, to name a few.

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The Lowveld Community Orchestra’s founder and conductor, Anneke Coetzer, who handed the baton over to Lizanne Barnard last year, performed in the first half of the concert, and said a few words to the audience about how far the orchestra had come since its formation 10 years ago.

Barnard told Lowvelder that the concert was a great success and thanked everyone who came to support it. “I am so proud of the orchestra and the performance.

The show went very well,” she said. “One of the highlights for me was the level of interaction we had with the audience and the kind of audience we had. They were all music lovers.”

Barnard said guests were treated to wonderful food made by Bardolino’s Jennifer Schormann, and added that she was grateful the orchestra was able to perform at such a beautiful venue.

“It was a wonderful experience for everyone. We ended the show with an encore. There was a point in the piece when we needed instruments we did not have in the orchestra, so we decided to sing the melody instead. It gave it a real European feel and a sense of unity and camaraderie for the orchestra members,” she said.

Barnard said they had good feedback from the crowd. Several attendees had shared how much they enjoyed the concert.

She also thanked those who helped sponsor the show and urged everyone who would like to join the orchestra to contact her on 073 594 2277.